Paris to Poitiers

Wow…so I’m behind again.

The rest of my time in Paris was lots of fun, but rather tiring. Being a tourist is HARD. Oy. But I did some fun things. I didn’t make it to the Monet Museum, I went Monday thinking, and believing I had checked properly, that it was closed TUESDAYS. No. Lies. Closed Mondays. So in a fit of pique I took the metro back to the center of town and wandered around looking at shops and things.
I ended up near the Hotel de Ville and the Centre Pompidou. There was a great little band playing under some stairs at the Centre…it was drizzling at that point, so everyone was all crowded around underneath listening to the French hippie music. It was great! Fun and energetic, the boys were all sort of scraggly looking and very entertaining. There was a clarinet, an accordion, a banjo, and base cello. Epic.
Being at the Hotel de Ville was amazing. I didn’t go in, the line for the exhibit was way too long, but they were prepping for a big veterans ceremony out front. Life in Paris is very interestingly centered around the Hotel, it is were the revolutionary governments would protest, meet, and the people would rally. Really neat to be there.
Then…it started to thunderstorm and bucket down rain. Lightning, thunder, the whole works. I nipped into a bookstore called Mona Lisait (Mona reads) and looked at odd postcards and French Sandman until it let up enough to run to the metro.

The next day I took a train out to Versailles. Versailles was the only place I went that I couldn’t talk my way into the student rate. Sigh. But it was beautiful and sunny. I finally go to see the hall of mirrors, NOT under reconstruction…and man. Louis XIV definitely had some stuff worked out. That hall is amazing. Absolutely incredible…light and gold everywhere you look. Awesome.
I also took the chance to see La Petite Trianon, the little farmhouse and farm that Marie Antoinette had built for her entertainment and relaxation. It must have been nice to be queen of France. It was almost sickeningly beautiful. But when you are queen and you say you want Perfectly Pastorally Picturesque…you get it. Right down to the mill pond with fish, ducks, swans, and even a heron. Oh yes. I took a break and sat down on a little stone bridge crossing a stream with a little waterfall just behind. I sat there and pretended it was all made for me. Very peaceful.
The gardens of Versailles are massive. They just go on and on and getting lost is pretty much easy as pie. I was a little grumpy and a little tired by the end, so I didn’t see as much as I might’ve wanted to. But still, awesome.

The last day: LOUVRE DAY! And time fore me to some exploring too. I got up early and went to a bakery on the same street as my hotel: 2 pain au chocolate for breakfast. Bliss. Then I took the metro to a little children’s library: I had seen a poster for a CLAMP exhibit there (if you don’t know what CLAMP is, it’s a group of 4 Japanese women who create manga series. I adore their work, some series more than others, but they are funny or moving stories and have awesome artwork. Yes, I am a nerd.). And I wanted to see. While I was there they told me at a bigger exhibit of CLAMP’s work not far away. So I hoofed it over there only to find that it didn’t open till 2. So, off to the Louvre I went.
I talked my way into the free student pass to enter the museum and spent 5 hours wandering around. I walked into the statues first, and then into Mesopotamian artifacts next door…which were huge and epic and awesome. I also stumbled, utterly by accident on Hammurabi’s Code. I nearly cried! Because…yeah…Hammurabi, codified laws, center of town, big deal. It’s not as tall as I imagined, but no less intense to be so close to something so old and amazing.
Did La Joconde (Mona Lisa), which remains haunting. I don’t really have anything to say about it that hasn’t been said before, but I’m going to say some stuff anyway. So ha! I think what draws us is her mystery. Her ambiguity…she projects the idea on us that “I am such a small painting, so very quiet and unobtrusive, but look my way, be interested in my, and I will distain to provide you answers.” She sees you, watches you, but tells you nothing.
I passed on to see my favorite painting: Liberté Guidant les Peuples, and happily stumbled on a portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps.
I did hella Egypt, obviously. Embarrassed myself by asking a guard where the Rosetta Stone was…it’s in London. Since early 1900s. Duh. But he did compliment my French…actually he thought I was Irish, because my accent was too good to be American. (Something similar happened with one of the guys behind the counter at my hotel. He went out of his way to ask me where I was from, because he didn’t believe it when my hotel registry said USA. I guess the Irish have good accents. Bit of a boost to my ego though!)
Yeah…didn’t see it all, but did see a lot. Didn’t read lots of signs. I decided early on to avoid signs unless truly truly interested. I didn’t do an audio guide either. Just let myself be swept up and carried away by the ancient and the beautiful.
I was out of there early enough to go and see the CLAMP exhibit (which was gorgeous) and then back to the hotel. Where I went and shamelessly used the MacDonald’s wifi to Skype Alicia. Oh yes, looking like an idiot gesturing at a computer screen in public. Good times.

The next day I took a taxi and the TGV (really fast train) down to Poitiers where I moved in with my host family. They are super nice. Sabine and Patrick are the mom and dad, both are divorced and remarried, all the kids coming from first marriages. Éle is the daughter, 15, and then there are two boys. One is 18, just starting University, he is currently around but leaves in a week or so. The other lives with his father and I only just met him today. He is 19 and also at the University of Poitiers…I think. He is really tall…and quite cute. Hee.
But I have a really nice room, solid internet, and a bus stop into town or to the university only 15 minutes walk away. It’s awesome and the family is very friendly!

Tomorrow I start the week of hell intensive grammar and culture orientation that all the study abroad kids do. And then my classes start the week after I think. All the different departments of a University here are much more segregated than in the states. They all start, and end, at different times. Weird. So if I take classes in the history department, they will start on a different day from those in the literature department, all of which start on a different day than the CFLE classes (classes taught just for study abroad kids, there are different levels of CFLE depending on your level of French). It’s a bit intimidating to try and think about…but I’m sure I can make it work.

And there are salsa classes offered! I just have to figure out how to sign up for them…as it’s different from all the others. Most classes are not registred for online, I think only the PE/dance classes are online. New systems make my head spin.

Anyway! Things progress, I remain stubbornly positive, and I make sure to try cheese anytime it is offered!